I do have that mindset - that most good art comes from some turmoil, from someone trying to come to some equilibrium, or come up and get a breath.

If you're afraid they might discover your redneck past, there are a hundred ways to cover your redneck past.

I'm not really a strange person or anything, so if there's music I like, usually there's other people who like it too.

I don't leave my neighborhood. I don't go anywhere. There are four blocks I live in and there are two coffee shops, one at each end of the block... so I don't do much driving... Some people would say they never see me because I don't go anywhere. I stay in the blue state of Nashville, in my bubble.

I used to do this big rant at the end of some gigs with Ben Folds Five. The band broke into this big heavy metal thing and I started as a joke to scream in a heavy metal falsetto. I found myself saying things like: Feel my pain, I am white, feel my pain.

I do think that when you make repeated mistakes, it's usually because you're just not coming to grips with something.

Because I write very simply, but inside the simplicity, there's a lot of subtlety. That's what I'm proud of.